JAKARTA - Paul McCartney opened a two-night concert at the Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, in a way that is unusual for a musician of his stature. Appearing intimate on a small stage, then taking the audience back to the early days of The Beatles.
People quoted Monday, March 30, reported that McCartney took the stage on Friday, March 27, and immediately greeted the audience enthusiastically. "Welcome to Hollywood! We're going to have fun!" said the 83-year-old musician before performing 23 songs from various phases of his career.
The concert in a building with a capacity of around 1,200 people is far from the scale of the stadium he usually fills. But it was in this narrow space that McCartney found a closer atmosphere. "It's really fun. It's nice to see your whites," he told People.
People said the show also reminded them of the early days of The Beatles when they were still performing in small clubs in Liverpool. McCartney recalled the group's first trip to America. "We hadn't really seen much of the world, and of course we hadn't seen America, so it was really amazing," he said.
He then told one thing that the audience remembered most at that time. According to McCartney, the men usually pay attention to the chords played on stage, while the women screamed more. The joke immediately triggered the audience's screams, as if bringing back the atmosphere of Beatlemania.
Although this concert is also related to his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney said he had not performed new songs because he was still studying them with the band. Instead, the spotlight was fully directed to the song catalog that had been sticking to the public's ears for six decades.
That night he performed a series of The Beatles songs such as "Help!", "Let It Be", "Hey Jude", "Love Me Do", "Get Back", "Lady Madonna", and "The End". There is also "Now and Then", a ballad released after the death of John Lennon. When performing it, McCartney said, "Thank you, John, for writing that song."
A number of Wings-era songs such as "Coming Up", "Let 'Em In", "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five", and "Jet" are also on the list. So are solo songs such as "Every Night", "Flaming Pie", and "My Valentine", which are dedicated to his wife, Nancy Shevell, who was in the theater.
People said McCartney focused more on performing than talking long. He took turns playing his signature Höfner grand piano and bass. During the concert, he greeted guests on the second floor balcony, including Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Neville, the director of the documentary Man on the Run.
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